Personal computing discussed

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Pax-UX
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Building a ‘small-form factor PC’ [need help]

Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:10 am

Well, it’s finally time to build a ‘small-form factor PC’ as I’m planning on using it to stream a TV signal around the house using wireless or Gigabit if the wireless is not up to the task. Of course I won’t be allowing my neighbors access no matter now much beer they want to buy me! ;)

Anyway, I’ve never built one of these small computer thingies and need some help picking out the best parts for the job. I don’t care about the brand of any of the comment or the cost (within reason of course).

Here’s what I need:
* Quiet! A big must!!! I don’t want any 747 landing in my living room. Is there water-cooling for these guys?
* Needs to be able to Capture TV + Playback Videos/DVDs/XviD on TV. It needs to be high quality as most of the video outs to TV I’ve used in the past looked slightly blurred. While not a must if HDTV is possible then I’d also like to have it just encase. All this needs to be done in real-time and a remote control would be nice. But will have a wireless keyboard & mouse anyway.
* I need something like Tivo / Sky Plus, (e.g. Timeshift) Now this is also importance, since I have a cable box which only shows a single channel at a time I need to have the PC using some Infra-Red device change the change on this cable box! Can it be done???
* Wireless, of course & Gigabit Nic.
* What OS? Windows Media Edition? Linux Media (forgot its name)? Have no real preference just want something that will do a good job.
* Not to power hungry as it will be left on most of the time.

Just to get things rolling:
CPU – Core2 Due (preliminary benchmarks look very promising with codecs) These guys don’t create much heat?
RAM – 1 GB (just the value stuff tight timings not worth the cash)
HD – 75GB Raptor, left over since I upgrade to a 150GB. Might generate too much heat though in a SSF?

Anything else that might be cool for a multimedia center?
"What luck for rulers, that men do not think"
 
Nitrodist
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 5:00 pm

A good video card that can tune signals and send them out, etc. would be good.
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Coran Fixx
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:15 pm

You have a real nice rig in your sig. I would suggest if your computers were going to be networked, that x2 rig could do all the heavy lifting (ie encoding recorded programs).

For day to day tivo activities its my opinion that a conroe might be a waste of resources, a a64 3000+ might even be too much.

My Tivo has some of the slowest hard drives on the planet and still does the job admirably, so I don't know if a premium performing drive should be a priority (maybe one with huge capacity is in order)

So, it would be my guess that the premium or the money should be spent on the video capture card with the best features, paired up with the best software that is going to make the best home theater.

Just some opening thoughts, not ever having built a pc for home theater use I am not an expert.
 
king_kilr
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:14 pm

I would recomend using MythTVwith just about any bardware you can get. I currently have a MythBox running on:

Sempron 64(not sure which, below 3000)
512 MB RAM
160 GB 7200RPM HDD
6100 integrated

I never have any problems even when watching live TV and transcoding a recording/commercial flagging at the same time.

What parts you get depends on the amount of money you want to spend. I would reccomend a capture card from Hauppauge and a large HDD. Other then that any modern parts fit the bill.
Damn the torpedoes , full speed ahead.

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lex-ington
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:29 pm

It's really about the hardware you use to decode and the OS. A Core Duo is not necessary, but that;s your choice. I have built three in the last couple months for friends: 2 using an A64-3000, 1 using a A64-3500. The stock cooler is perfect and the seagate HDD's are quiet.

All 3 were in a Minuet case for "that look" - the only addition being a fan on the side of the case for cooling the drives (DVD drive and HDD). I ask them how it goes and there are no comlaints to date.

Just make sure the decoder plays nice with the OS you choose. That is a real pain . . . . so I've heard.
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Pax-UX
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Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:04 am

I’ve been looking at the following.

Aopen XC Cube EZ482 – This support PCI and AMD x2 CPUs. Nothing out there that looks good for an Intel chip.

Hauppauge! WinTV-PVR-350 – From reading around this looks like a good video capture card.

What do people think?
"What luck for rulers, that men do not think"
 
lex-ington
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Wed Aug 09, 2006 10:29 am

What if you go the route with no board included.

Then you cna get a case of your liking and put an mATX board in there with a DVI connector - therefore your T.V. upgradability won't be hindered. (I'm talking about a DVI-HDMI connector). You may want to put an HD or a Blu-Ray drive in there once they become affordable.

You didn't mention gaming, so on-board video shoud do quite fine ( at least if you go the nforce 6150 route)

I found this review of that case and it looks good.

Edit 2: A review of the WinTV card.
. . . this is the digital projection of your mental self. . . .
 
Pax-UX
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Wed Aug 09, 2006 2:00 pm

The main reason why I like the EZ482; it’s got built in audio (standard these days), but it also does integrated VGA + TV out. I’m not planning on play any computer games on this PC. Only TV + MP3 playback through my TV and HiFi.

Cheers those reviews are helpful.
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king_kilr
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Wed Aug 09, 2006 9:43 pm

THe only reason to get the Haupauge-350 would be if you want to use its video-out capabilities, otherwise you can save money by going with the -250, or -150.
Damn the torpedoes , full speed ahead.



AMD X2 4200+, Asus A8N-E, 3GBs of RAM, 7900GS
 
Pax-UX
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Thu Aug 10, 2006 2:53 am

Anybody know anything about

AVerMedia A16A Hybrid + FM PCI, Analog Tv-Tuner & DVB-T(Digital-TV)

It looks like a good card but never heard of AVerMedia till yesterday.
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rika13
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Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:27 am

http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/eng/Products/RTGold.aspx

https://www.digitalconnection.com/store ... NER%20CARD

fusionhdtv5 rt gold; best tuner around, low profile for the tiniest boxes and better airflow, tunes both ntsc and atsc and qam (cable hdtv), has both x64 and vista drivers, and comes with an ir remote so you can use your universal remote and ir blasters with it if you want
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titan
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Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:54 am

If you want to go Linux, the pcHDTV HD-5500 is the way to go. It has mad support in the Linux community and is guaranteed to work with MythTV. That is the capture/tuner card I plan on getting when I finally get my media PC put together. And I'll be using Linux. There is a downside to this card though: no Windows support. If you get it, you better be sure that Linux is the way you want to go.
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andmalc
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HD-5500 Windows support

Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:40 pm

According to the FAQ on the web site, the HD-5500 comes with Windows drivers and works with ATI video cards running their Multimedia Centre software.

I'm thinking of buying one to use under Debian in my EPIA M10000 to record cable TV. Titan - how do you find the picture quality with this card?
 
Pax-UX
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Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:47 am

Just to close this one out…

Went with the Aopen XC Cube EZ482 running a 4600x2. The capture card is a Hauppauge! WinTV-PVR-350, very impressed with the capture quality. But the software it comes with is just about passable for professional developed software. All I can say is I’m glad to be running MythTV.

Build Notes: Barebones system are very fast to build with the motherboard being mounted and all the main wires attached. Popped in the CPU and RAM, fired it all up. Nice surprise seeing how quiet the system was from less then ½ a meter. But that said the fan on the CPU is blocked by the WinTV card so I added an extra fan 80x80 fan running at half speed just to make sure it’s moving air through the system and blow on the hard disk which runs close to 50 degrees under load.
"What luck for rulers, that men do not think"

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